The Tragedy of Mariam

The Tragedy of Mariam, the Fair Queen of Jewry is a Jacobean-era drama written by Elizabeth Cary, Viscountess Falkland, and first published in 1613. There is some speculation that Cary may have written a play before The Tragedy of Mariam that has since been lost, but most scholars agree that The Tragedy of Mariam is the first extant original play written by a woman in English. It is also the first known English play to closely explore the history of King Herod's marriage to Mariam. The play was written between 1602 and 1604. It was entered into the Stationers' Register in December 1612. The 1613 quarto was printed by Thomas Creede for the bookseller Richard Hawkins. Cary's drama belongs to the subgenre of the Senecan revenge tragedy, which is made apparent by the presence of the classical style chorus that comments on the plot of the play, the lack of violence onstage, and "long, sententious speeches". The primary sources for the play are The Wars of the Jews and The Antiquities of the Jews by Josephus, which Cary used in Thomas Lodge's 1602 translation. Front Matter The printed edition of Cary's play includes a dedication to Elizabeth Cary. It is unknown whether this refers to the sister of Cary's husband, Henry Cary, or the wife of his brother Philip Cary. The play is then preceded by an invocation to the goddess Diana: